Here Now & Just Back WDW Reopening Experiences Including Park Hopping

[ML_LovesDisney]

Wow...for a family of 4 $100 clams for Rise. Not seeing the value there...maybe solo travelers. Not to mention Rise always seems to go offline...

I agree, Flights of Passage is more valuable IMO. But, we are a party of 10 this trip with my little nephews as their Christmas surprise so I'm just trying to get on as many rides as possible **fingers crossed**. Normally, I'd never pay that though!

 

[Smugpugmug]

Wow...for a family of 4 $100 clams for Rise. Not seeing the value there...maybe solo travelers. Not to mention Rise always seems to go offline...

I agree that for one ride it's a little nuts. I paid $15 per person for my friend, sister and I to ride Rise in May. There's no way that I'll do $75 plus tax. When I checked, Rise had return times for 4 pm so I guess people are willing to pay that amount.

 

[Gary Stocker]

I agree, Flights of Passage is more valuable IMO. But, we are a party of 10 this trip with my little nephews as their Christmas surprise so I'm just trying to get on as many rides as possible **fingers crossed**. Normally, I'd never pay that though!

Wow. Party of 10. Sounds daunting. Fingers crossed for you as well. Might want to go to Baseline Taphouse after to relax and have a cold one or 2. Kids will love the fresh made pretzels.

 

[cjlong88]

MK this morning has been slow, but it's starting to pick up. We did Space, Buzz, HM, Big Thunder, and Pirates all as walk-ons utilizing early entry and the first hour of park open. We have LL's for PP and 7DMT. Stacking at Epcot for tonight. Crowds are manageable (for now). The pros of colder weather I guess?

 

[CarolynFH]

Wow...for a family of 4 $100 clams for Rise. Not seeing the value there...maybe solo travelers. Not to mention Rise always seems to go offline...

Well, standby time just now is estimated at 130 minutes. I agree it would be difficult to balance the dollar cost with the value of my time waiting in line, especially with impatient kids.

 

[cjlong88]

Epcot was great this afternoon and evening. So much less crowded than we were anticipating. Using G+ we knocked out all the major rides except Remy and Frozen. Harmonious was wonderful - found a central spot right in line with the stargate just 10 minutes before the show started. Really, having done this time of year three other instances the past, I'm shocked by how low the crowds were, because today was just unbelievable in terms of what we were able to accomplish (again, is it the temp??). Combined with our morning at MK we rode a total of 15 attractions , watched 2 shows, and made it halfway around world showcase. Only 7 of them using G+ or ILL$. Longest wait today was it's a small world at 15 minutes.

We are sleeping in tomorrow, grabbing breakfast at Ale & Compass, and plan to just lay low at the hotel while we stack LL's for HS from the afternoon to park close.

 

[snikki]

Epcot was great this afternoon and evening. So much less crowded than we were anticipating. Using G+ we knocked out all the major rides except Remy and Frozen. Harmonious was wonderful - found a central spot right in line with the stargate just 10 minutes before the show started. Really, having done this time of year three other instances the past, I'm shocked by how low the crowds were, because today was just unbelievable in terms of what we were able to accomplish (again, is it the temp??). Combined with our morning at MK we rode a total of 15 attractions , watched 2 shows, and made it halfway around world. Only 7 of them using G+ or ILL$. Longest wait today was it's a small world at 15 minutes.

We are sleeping in tomorrow, grabbing breakfast at Ale & Compass, and plan to just lay low at the hotel while we stack LL's for HS from the afternoon to park close.

I think a good amount of people had to cancel due to the snow storms across the US. Lots of cancelled flights. Most people probably moved their trips out a few weeks or next year since it could take 3-4 days to get another flight.

I believe this happened to us with Hurricane Nicole. I expected that Friday at the end of Jersey Week and before Veterans Weekend to be insane but it ended up being pretty low crowds. I think it was people pushing back their arrivals (and leaving early) due to the storm/cancelled flights.

Glad it worked out for you and you were able to get so much done!!

 

[Smugpugmug]

My family and I are at MK today. Crowds are not nearly as bad as I expected (President's day week felt more crowded at least in my opinion). We got a lot done with early entry and buying the ILL for Mine Train. However we're currently stuck on It's a Small World for about 40-45 minutes. The CMs had to call the fire department to help guests with disabilities out of the boat. We had the pleasure of listening to the Small World theme for almost the entire time but thankfully they shut the music off LOL We're still sitting in our boat waiting for the CMs to push our boat to a landing dock.

 

[Ariel620]

My family and I are at MK today. Crowds are not nearly as bad as I expected (President's day week felt more crowded at least in my opinion). We got a lot done with early entry and buying the ILL for Mine Train. However we're currently stuck on It's a Small World for about 40-45 minutes. The CMs had to call the fire department to help guests with disabilities out of the boat. We had the pleasure of listening to the Small World theme for almost the entire time but thankfully they shut the music off LOL We're still sitting in our boat waiting for the CMs to push our boat to a landing dock.

For those of you who used early entry at MK the last few days… did they open as advertised at 8:30? Or were rides open earlier for Xmas week? I was hoping to be there already but our Southwest flights were canceled two days in a row , so we are driving now. Hope to join the fun in a few days!

 

[Ariel620]

MK this morning has been slow, but it's starting to pick up. We did Space, Buzz, HM, Big Thunder, and Pirates all as walk-ons utilizing early entry and the first hour of park open. We have LL's for PP and 7DMT. Stacking at Epcot for tonight. Crowds are manageable (for now). The pros of colder weather I guess?

My family and I are at MK today. Crowds are not nearly as bad as I expected (President's day week felt more crowded at least in my opinion). We got a lot done with early entry and buying the ILL for Mine Train. However we're currently stuck on It's a Small World for about 40-45 minutes. The CMs had to call the fire department to help guests with disabilities out of the boat. We had the pleasure of listening to the Small World theme for almost the entire time but thankfully they shut the music off LOL We're still sitting in our boat waiting for the CMs to push our boat to a landing dock.

For those of you who used early entry at MK the last few days… did they open as advertised at 8:30? Or were rides open earlier for Xmas week? I was hoping to be there already but our Southwest flights were canceled two days in a row , so we are driving now. Hope to join the fun in a few days!

 

[Smugpugmug]

For those of you who used early entry at MK the last few days… did they open as advertised at 8:30? Or were rides open earlier for Xmas week? I was hoping to be there already but our Southwest flights were canceled two days in a row , so we are driving now. Hope to join the fun in a few days!

We rope dropped Space Mountain/Tomorrowland. We were allowed to walk to + line up at Space Mountain at around 8:25 but the ride didn't open until exactly 8:30.

Oh and as an update to my previous post - we ended up being stuck on Small World for around 1 hour and 5-ish minutes. We received two Lightning Lanes (they did not work at Peter Pan, Jingle Cruise, Space Mountain and Mine Train) and bottles of water.

 

[cjlong88]

For those of you who used early entry at MK the last few days… did they open as advertised at 8:30? Or were rides open earlier for Xmas week? I was hoping to be there already but our Southwest flights were canceled two days in a row , so we are driving now. Hope to join the fun in a few days!

They walked us to Space at 8:25 and we rode right at 8:30 am

 

[Boardwalk III]

Merry Christmas! We checked into the Yacht Club this evening and just finished dinner at Flying Fish. WOW! 10/10 and will 1000% plan on eating here again in the future.

One of our all-time favorites. Can’t wait to go back in March now that it has reopened!

 

[cjlong88]

Hollywood Studios was today. Family slept in, and I started stacking rides for the evening. We did breakfast at Ale and Compass followed by mini golf at Fantasia Gardens.

Strolled into HS around 2:30 to grab a drink at Baseline. Walked around Galaxy's Edge and then did Muppets and Indy as walk ons. Then started the madness...we had/have LL's for MFSR, Rise, TSM, ToT, RnRC, and MMRR all between 5-9pm. I cannot stress enough. Stack for the evening and refresh! Something is gone, suddenly there it is! I snagged MMRR and TSM simply by grabbing something and then modifying it. Wait times have been absolutely insane, literally every heavy hitter was 100 minutes or more at one point.

Our evening has been great because of the stack and refresh methods. Even during this crazy busy day we made it happen!

 

[SLThomas318]

They walked us to Space at 8:25 and we rode right at 8:30 am

This is good to know, they didn't do this over Thanksgiving and people were running.... it was a little intense. I wonder if this was just with the xmas crowds....

 

[isabellea]

Hollywood Studios was today. Family slept in, and I started stacking rides for the evening. We did breakfast at Ale and Compass followed by mini golf at Fantasia Gardens.

Strolled into HS around 2:30 to grab a drink at Baseline. Walked around Galaxy's Edge and then did Muppets and Indy as walk ons. Then started the madness...we had/have LL's for MFSR, Rise, TSM, ToT, RnRC, and MMRR all between 5-9pm. I cannot stress enough. Stack for the evening and refresh! Something is gone, suddenly there it is! I snagged MMRR and TSM simply by grabbing something and then modifying it. Wait times have been absolutely insane, literally every heavy hitters 100 minutes or more at one point.

Our evening has been great because of the stack and refresh methods. Even during this crazy busy day we made it happen!

Did you watch Fantasmic! ? Which show and how busy was the theatre?

We are currently staying in Daytona after our 24h drive (better than being stuck in an airport imo) and our first park day is tomorrow. Very grateful for the reports on this thread!!

 

[cjlong88]

Did you watch Fantasmic! ? Which show and how busy was the theatre?

We are currently staying in Daytona after our 24h drive (better than being stuck in an airport imo) and our first park day is tomorrow. Very grateful for the reports on this thread!!

We didn't watch it last night, but we plan on seeing it Thursday!

 

[dizneedoll]

Hollywood Studios was today. Family slept in, and I started stacking rides for the evening. We did breakfast at Ale and Compass followed by mini golf at Fantasia Gardens.

Strolled into HS around 2:30 to grab a drink at Baseline. Walked around Galaxy's Edge and then did Muppets and Indy as walk ons. Then started the madness...we had/have LL's for MFSR, Rise, TSM, ToT, RnRC, and MMRR all between 5-9pm. I cannot stress enough. Stack for the evening and refresh! Something is gone, suddenly there it is! I snagged MMRR and TSM simply by grabbing something and then modifying it. Wait times have been absolutely insane, literally every heavy hitter was 100 minutes or more at one point.

Our evening has been great because of the stack and refresh methods. Even during this crazy busy day we made it happen!

How long on average have your wait times in the LL's been? Ive heard a few ppl saying they have been long.

 

[cjlong88]

How long on average have your wait times in the LL's been? Ive heard a few ppl saying they have been long.

I would say they are all hovering between 5-15 minutes for us, with most of them being super quick. Maybe we are just getting lucky. RnRC was one of our longer ones, but it was having some issues yesterday so that's totally understandable. TSM LL was backed up all the way to the first tap point but moved fairly continuously once it got going again. Other than that, as long as the ride hasn't we experienced major down time, I haven't noticed any huge delays. Again, could be luck.

ETA: Remy LL took 28 minutes on Dec 28th. Better than 165 I guess!

 

[jvalic33]

Merry Christmas! We checked into the Yacht Club this evening and just finished dinner at Flying Fish. WOW! 10/10 and will 1000% plan on eating here again in the future.

Good to hear, we have a ressie on NY Day now I really can't wait. Anything specifically that you ordered that you loved?